


|CONCLUSION: Affection|

by cyndrat



Series: Detroit: Reverse Roles [10]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Accidental Drug Use, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Android Gavin Reed, Connor & Upgraded Connor | RK900 are Siblings, Connor & Upgraded Connor | RK900 are Twins, Gavin is Badass, Gen, Human Upgraded Connor | RK900, M/M, Minor Original Character(s), Mutual Pining, Nines deserves Cuddles, Protective Gavin Reed, Role Reversal, Sort of kidnapping, Various Minor OCs - Freeform, android virus, except they're starting to move past that, pre-getting together, that is: Nines would rather not be drugged again, virus is very minor in this one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-06
Updated: 2019-03-06
Packaged: 2019-11-07 15:33:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17963255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyndrat/pseuds/cyndrat
Summary: Well. When it rains it pours, right?It's been almost 36 hours since Gavin managed to eradicate the virus, and life isn't...normal,exactly, but they aren't tiptoeing around each other, so heading back to the apartment block to talk to Meredith and Trinity to get more answers seems like a reasonable plan.Except things are never that easy for them.





	|CONCLUSION: Affection|

**Author's Note:**

> oookay so! kinda felt like I needed something to bridge the gap between **"CONCLUSION: Trust"** and **"Breaking Routine"** because CONCLUSION leaves Nines convinced that Gav wants nothing to do with him romantically/sexually, and uh - sure the virus made Nines aware of his feelings but it DID THE SAME for Gavin...  
> so yeah, a linky bit to set things straight for these boys so that they could actually get to Routine  
> (straight....... ha)

“But wait-” and great, he can guess what Meredith’s gonna ask next, cause it is kind of an obvious question. “How do you know about the virus, if it only affects non-deviants?”

Gavin gives her a tight smile. He’s not quite gonna lie, but he’d hoped to avoid this exact situation, because- because the only answer that’s safe to share feels like a lie, and he's sure if Nines were beside him instead of the next door apartment he'd have a much better way to say it. “I run a variety of system checks daily,” is what Gavin goes with, “and I interface with a computer or tablet several times a day at the station. A security sweep found it fairly quickly when I offloaded your witness account from Tuesday evening.” All truths, just manipulated a bit to better disguise the fact that he isn’t a proper deviant.  


Not a proper deviant, not a proper machine - though if he was still a slave to his original programming, he doesn’t want to think about how the night he spent struggling with the virus would have gone.  


“Just to be safe, I’d like to book an appointment for you with a DPD medtech to take care of the virus. We’d rather not find out in a couple weeks that it’s amalgamated other code into itself and can affect deviants.” She’s nodding earnestly. Her expressions seem a little more natural this afternoon, and maybe it’s because she’s more comfortable with just him in the room. Silly, really; he was designed for infiltration and intimidation, and Nines has displayed a tendency to be far gentler during investigations than Gavin’s programming urges him.  


He’s a better person around Nines.  


He offers Meredith his hand, already prepared to link her to the portal the precinct’s medtechs have set up for situations arising involving witnesses and victims, and while this might not be one of the intended functions of the department, he’d rather the virus get deleted by someone who’s already dealt with one iteration of it. She reaches out easily, synthskin dissolving down to bare her chassis, and Gavin again notes the four primary fractures on the inside of her wrist. He blinks away the program that’s whirring to match a makeshift weapon to the injury. That’s unnecessary information, and private, and-  


And Gavin’s turning his head to stare at the near wall. He ignores the ping from Meredith requesting to complete the interface, because he heard… He heard something that sounded like a voice, louder than usual in conversation, and startled, and _Nines._  


He’s staring at the wall between this apartment and Klement’s. The other side of this wall is the kitchen, and the dining room, and _there’s another sound,_ this one like a crash, followed quickly by a shout from Klement.  


“Scuse me,” Gavin blurts, turning back to Meredith to complete the interface and push the link to the portal across to her before cutting the connection off. He stands - and has apparently broken the interface too quickly because his systems take a precious second to reorient. “I trust you can set an appointment yourself, I need to go check next door.” Meredith nods on the edge of his vision and he starts a soft reset of the combat protocols that had been pushed to a lower priority and got stuck there, and he manages to stride around the couch at a decent speed.  


Being a _nearly finished_ prototype really fucking sucks sometimes.  


He’s steady on his feet though, considering he really hasn’t interfaced with much today. He does struggle a little to stop the audio file from the last twelve seconds from replaying for the fourth time though.  


He definitely doesn’t need any more evidence indicating something just happened in the Klim-Klement apartment, because he knows. He _knows,_ he gets it, there were several other sounds he hadn’t identified in the moment but that his internal playback is highlighting and they all add up to something bad going on while he isn’t there with his partner.  


Thankfully he’s only going to the next apartment; hurrying out of Meredith’s apartment and down the hall a couple steps to number 317 is easy, and so is raising a fist to knock (bang) against the door.  


He’s met with a silence that can only come across as ominous considering the noises he registered just a short while ago.  


“Miss Klement?” If the woman doesn't come to the door within the next thirty seconds, Gavin might bust the fucking thing open himself. He _knows_ what the indisputable audio in his memory banks indicates. He's also pretty sure that his partner’s in trouble, but that bit is the sort of intangible instinct that he usually ignores. But if there's a chance Nines is at risk…  


After their experience the last time they were out investigating in this apartment block, Gavin is rather inclined to be overly cautious.  


So he’s currently scanning the door to calculate the best spot to ram a shoulder against it to gain entry most efficiently, while his hope that Trinity Klement will come and pull it open herself dwindles. He bangs a fist against the door once more. “Open the goddamn door, woman,” he grumbles, running a preconstruction of his path through the apartment in search of his partner while he forces himself to wait a little longer.  


Okay, that’s it. There’ve been no sounds of movement or voices from the other side of the door, which means Nines is not in a state or position in which he is able to respond.  


Two steps back puts him squarely in the middle of the hallway, and he focuses on the spot he’d identified as ideal to hit and shifts his shoulders, ready to lunge forwards and bust the door in and-  


“Miss Klement just left,” someone says suddenly from the hallway to his right. Gavin twists to look at whoever’s approached him with a snarl readied in his throat, but he sees it’s the family with the kid who looks similar to a YK500 model but is, in fact, human.  


Yeah… He makes a commendable effort to silence the sharp sound. The child shuffles into her father’s side a little, so he probably isn’t entirely successful. “Detective Anderson with her?”  


“He didn’t look well,” the father says as answer, and glances to his spouse, worry flickering into both their expressions. “We figured they were looking for you.”  


“Fffu-” The resigned look on the man’s face at the start of the curseword is plenty to stop him. “Which way?” he grits out instead. This family better have more information to offer him. They _have to,_ because if they don’t then he’ll have to hack into the apartment building’s shitty security cameras, which will only delay him. _And Nines might not have the time._ “Please, anything you could tell me-”  


“Trinity was heading down the hall towards the back stairs. Looked like she was half supporting your partner.”  


Gavin acknowledges the information with a brief nod and then he’s gearing up to a sprint, ready to shove past the family but they shift out of his way quickly enough. He pulls up the building schematic, and there’s only one place Klement could really be going if she took the back stairs - out to the alleyway. Which… is not gonna help him get a nice number from the algorithm calculating Nines’ chances, but he cancels that program pretty fast. He’s gonna find his human, and they’re both gonna be fine.  


They’re going to be fine, and Gavin will definitely lecture Nines and shake him around a little, but then he’s going to have to haul that dumb face down to a normal person’s height and kiss him senseless. Because… Because Gavin has figured out why that damned virus had scared him so much, and because he’s done with brushing off the feelings of affection for his stupid human, and because he really, really needs Nines to know how he feels before one of them gets dragged into mortal danger again.  


He puts out a quick notification to the DPD that covers the basics of _**‘Officer ANDERSON, R. down, possible hostage’**_ and _**‘KLEMENT, TRINITY status update: hostile’**_ and _**‘REED, G in pursuit’**_ and he hurries into the back staircase, leaping over the railings instead of clattering down the steps properly. Because he’s fucking worried, alright? They aren’t… _exactly_ sure how or why Robin Klim was left in a broken heap behind his favourite coffeeshop, bloodstream shot up with red ice and traces of other illicit drugs, but Trinity Klement is not making herself look good in this whole situation. And a shockingly large percentage of his processing power is currently devoting itself to imagining what might be happening to his human. So yeah, he’s worried and vaulting his way down the stairs like a mad creature.  


There’s no one in the stairwell - no one to get in the way of his rush - but when he reaches the main floor, there isn’t anyone there either. Gavin wrenches the nearest exterior door open and stares out into the empty parking lot for a fraction of a second. He blinks, and his vision changes, lighting up in cool blues and greens that indicate a distinct lack of human presence but he will not fucking lose the trail here. He isn’t CyberLife’s newest and most capable android for nothing. With a thought, he taps into four half-decent security cameras in the alley that have angles that should catch some of the parking lot in their feed.  


Klement can’t have more than three minutes’ headstart on him, unless the banging he’d heard from her apartment had been caused by someone or something else. The odds of that are low. He blows through the last three minutes of video, and because he knows exactly who he’s looking for, he finds her, right at the 2:46 minute mark.  


She’s hauling Nines along surprisingly well considering the man’s physical mass, heading at a steady clip for the south edge of the alley. A figure strides up to her and shoulders most of Nines’ weight, then they both move into the alley and out of sight of the parking lot camera. Gavin rewinds just to the moment that the additional figure had entered this camera’s view, trying to get a decent look at the face. All he can conclude is that the figure is a man, 5’ 10” and 175-195 lbs, who’d moved with his head down far enough that none of the cameras caught enough to run a facial identification scan, but he updates the running file on the situation with the vague information.  


And then he steps out of the building, starting a virtual hop along the cameras in the back lane just to be sure as he runs down the alley towards Robin Klim’s coffeeshop.  


And that is not reassuring, not for Nines and not for Trinity Klement as she climbs ranks to primary suspect in their case.  


The various private security cameras don’t cover every foot of the alley. But they are spaced sufficiently well for him to follow Klement’s path, and he can see by the time markers that he’s catching up, and he lets himself focus on that. Catching up to Klement and the yet unknown man, catching up to Nines.  


He’s only following thirteen-point-nine seconds behind them when he ducks between Klim’s coffeeshop and the mixed retail building’s walls, and he does not allow the sight of the broad shouldered human male **> IAN AKERMAN >>DOB 11/23/1997** huddled above Nines to pause his movement.  


“What the hell are you doing, Klement?” he calls as he advances on the trio, surprised at how hard it is to keep his tone level. Nines twitches at the sound of his voice, blinks and braces one arm on the wall behind him to turn sluggishly.  


“Would you leave him and go take care of the plastic?” Klement grumbles to Akerman, and Gavin finally stops, head tilting as he watches their interaction. The man’s criminal record is light, mostly because it’s comprised of fourteen allegations of guilt with only two convictions, though there is currently an APB out on him from Lansing PD. Eight out of those fourteen filed allegations are for android assault.  


Akerman sighs lightly, but he steps back so he’s no longer looming over Nines.  


“How’d you get em?” Gavin asks with a crooked smile, eyes like flint. Akerman doesn’t seem like he’s interested in answering, just keeps stalking away from Nines and Klement. Oh boo, this guy’s gonna be no fun. But Gavin’s going to try to break that self-confident look - and hopefully distract Klement away from Nines for a bit. “Those androids you've allegedly assaulted, how’d you get em so fast? I’ve got the reports from Lansing and Ann Arbor right in front of me, indulge my curiosity for a second, would ya big guy?” _‘Allegedly’_ his ass, the other PDs couldn't find this guy guilty only because of a few things that didn't line up just right and a suspect who knows how to work a questioning.  


If he's going to start being lucky today, Akerman is about to as-good-as confess. It's past time for something to go well.  


“There’s this one spot,” Akerman finally rumbles, tapping the lower back of his own neck to demonstrate, and Gavin sets a reminder to send the audio/visual file to Lansing and Ann Arbor after all this. “Some kinda access port, you get it and they just go right down.”  


“Yeah, I know the spot,” Gavin fires back a second before Akerman lunges past him and brings a hook fist against his neck. He sways forwards with the hit, but it’s not that easy to incapacitate an NK900. Two bouncing steps has him spun around to face Akerman and just out of the man’s reach - but in a _perfect_ position to see his shocked expression. “Betcha ten you haven’t seen an NK model before me.”  


Akerman just looks… so, so confused, and it only makes Gavin’s job that much sweeter. He shifts his feet and draws up his hands, and a quick fist to the temple lays the man out on the ground. Gavin permits his health assessment to start a scan on the downed human. He’s pretty sure he didn’t deliver enough force to actually kill the guy, but he doesn’t really care either way. Well, he’ll probably care later.  


Or rather, Nines will care.  


“Step away from the detective,” he says to Klement with a wisp of static underlying his words. “Let’s keep this easy, cause you really ain’t doing yourself any fucking favours here today.”  


Trinity Klement actually _snarls_ at him, then she straightens and bolts to the street.  


**> APPREHEND SUSPECT**  


Fuck. No no - see, he would, usually. Would sprint after her without a thought and catch her and whip a pair of cuffs out before she really knew what hit her, but she’d dropped something before running, and an evidence scan quickly identifies as an autosyringe. And Nines is wheezing a little now, face scrunched up while he clutches at the wall and tries to lever himself up to standing. He looks incredibly unsteady even with the wall supporting the majority of his weight.  


“Fuckin relax,” Gavin snaps out, stepping around Akerman’s downed figure - confirmed unconscious, not dead - and making for his partner.  


He’s not fast enough to catch Nines when he pushes off from the wall and stumbles forwards, steps faltering immediately without the support. Gavin is fast enough, however, to dash forwards and control his partner’s descent to the asphalt, which is maybe the first thing to go more than halfway right today so maybe his luck really has turned up.  


Nines is sitting on one leg, the other sprawled out to the side, while Gavin’s down on one knee and holding his human’s shoulder steady so that he doesn’t crash to the ground. “Hey, hey Nines, look at me, would ya?”  


His health assessment scan is pulling up vague conclusions that don’t really tell him anything, and Nines doesn’t look anywhere near alert enough to share what the fuck all has gone on with Klement and Akerman. The man blinks a few times, tipping his head sideways to look up at Gavin. “Fine, ‘m fine.”  


He’s not fine. “You are definitely not. Fuck Rich, you’re shakin and your eyes are barely focusing on me, and your legs aren’t working. You aren’t fucking fine!” Nines flinches back, recoiling almost violently from his outburst and Gavin sweeps an arm around his back to keep his human from faceplanting. He has _got_ to control his tone; Nines managed to get drugged up again, with rA9 knows what because apparently that’s just the way their lives are now, so hell if he knows what his human’s emotions are doing anymore. “Hey, it’s okay. I got you.”  


“She…” Nines says, his eyes fluttering closed as he seems to give in, slumping into the curve of Gavin’s arm. “Sh’ gave me… something, dunno, but I couldn’t- legs aren’t workin. Brain feels… slow.” The human tenses, jerking his chin up and cracking his eyes open to stare urgently up. “Gavin, Gav, I was thinking that maybe- thought that maybe you wouldn’t…”  


There’s a small pit somewhere in Gavin’s wiring, somewhere in his lower torso that feels like it’s sucking all the surrounding biocomponents into it. Nines was worried he wouldn’t go after him. Fuck, what did he do that it’s even a vague notion in his human’s mind? Nevermind that the idea was probably teased out by today’s unwanted drug cocktail… “Fuck,” he mumbles, but he tightens his grip around Nines’ back. “Of course I came for you. What kinda partner d’you think I am? I’m always gonna come for you.”  


“Good partner.” Nines is relaxing again, wriggling himself a little closer to Gavin’s chest as if seeking heat. “Best par’ner. _Mine,_ my partner.”  


Gavin swallows. “Yeah Richard, yours.”  


Okay, so-  


Yeah.  


He’s gonna have to do something about these feelings. The virus two nights ago had actually helped him sort his shit, regardless of the fact that he’d rather not admit anything good came from the massive scare it’d caused him in the process. So he has to do something, and relatively soon, because he really needs his human to understand where he stands in this whole thing. He needs Nines to know that he’s always gonna come if there’s trouble, because Gavin is the best bet Nines is ever gonna have of getting out of trouble unhurt. Because Gavin cares, an awful fucking lot really, and he needs Nines to know he’s sticking around because he wants to stick around.  


_He wants to._  


Another thing he wants is to kiss his stupid, adorable human, but… He drops his chin and just presses their foreheads together, sucking in a breath that sounds steadier than it has any right to be. Nines is drugged, and while kissing him like the guy deserves would be an effective way to check _what_ and _how much_ unknown substance is running through his body, it feels like cheating while his human is in no state to give express consent.  


“Lemme see what she drugged you up with,” he says instead, hovering his free hand near enough to Nines’ face to indicate the method he’s suggesting.  


“Oh man, okay yes,” Nines mumbles, his eyes flying open and zeroing in on Gavin’s fingers. “Good idea, _best_ idea yes.” It’s the barely audible _“please”_ that follows that really clues Gavin in and makes him take just a second to catalogue his human’s apparent physiological reaction to the idea - eyes big and _dark,_ breathing still rough but heavier, pulse quickening.  


He almost laughs, because god, if he had known… “Hm, you liked this the other night, didn’t you?” He slips his hand closer, close enough to settle his fingers on Nines’ jaw, thumb held just above those pink lips that seem to part instinctively at the proximity. He holds still there, cupping Nines’ face but not quite touching his lips. There’s a curiosity welling up within him, and it really isn’t hurting anything to let that curiosity be sated. So he waits, gaze on his own hand so he isn’t staring directly into pleading eyes.  


“Would you jus-” Nines finally says, reaching in the direction of Gavin’s arm, and it’s in that moment that Gavin swipes his thumb into the warm mouth. Nines makes a surprised sound and Gavin chokes at the puff of warm _warm_ breath on his thumb and it’s a good thing he got his sample right away because the _reverberation_ and _tone_ of that sound is more than enough to make him withdraw his hand quickly.  


“Fuck, you- You shouldn’t be surprised dumbass, you literally-” His human rolls his eyes more dramatically than usual and grabs his wrist, turning Gavin’s spit-slick thumb towards his own mouth and watching intently but not manhandling him any further. Gavin shudders a breath but obeys, bringing his hand up and popping his thumb into his mouth to start analysis.  


He blinks a few times, shuffling through the absolute mess of information that the analysis suite is providing, flipping from _that was fun_ to _how the hell_ without an instant of hesitation. “Whaat the phck. How- how are you functional? You- Rich, you shouldn’t be so normal, you should be, like, y’should be crashed out on the floor, not talking and cuddling up to me.” Seriously. He can’t decide whether Klement had known what she was doing or not, because this is a cocktail that should be wreaking hell on his human’s system and laying him out flat on the ground. “Really Nines, what the fuck? I don’t understand.”  


“What the fuck?”  


Gavin frowns at the echo and lifts his head, realizing at the sight of two approaching figures that he’s been ignoring the alerts from his wide proximity sensors.  


“Lookit the LED, it’s a goddamn android!”  


They really do not need this - don’t need hostility and anti-android humans and a distinct lack of police backup because he’d directed the quickest responding officers to go after Trinity Klement instead of coming to their position.  


“Dude, is that-” **> ZACH ORTEGA >>DOB 09/14/2009**  


“That’s- It’s f-fucking Ian Akerman!” **> HENRY GRIMES >>DOB 08/20/2006**  


Gavin really, really doesn’t like the tones these two are using - delving uncomfortably close to hero worship for the guy he’d laid out flat - especially coupled with the fact that they’re almost certainly high. He just wants to get his poor human home… He sighs quietly, then shuffles Nines off of him, leans him up against the wall instead even though it’s just a little too far away to look comfortable.  


“What the fuck happened to ‘im?”  


Gavin pats Nines’ shoulder and rises, setting his shoulders and baring his too-sharp teeth because he knows very well what he was designed to look like. Intimidation is supposed to be one of his key features after all. “I did,” he growls, levelling his best glare at the pair. If they aren't too high on red ice or some other shit then they'll make the smart choice to back away. He’s not terribly hopeful - though they did both stutter to a stop at his growl, and he’s familiar enough with various expressions of fear and nervousness to recognize those emotions flitting across the guys’ faces.  


The only question remaining is how they’ll react.  


Not the way he’d prefer, is the answer, as Grimes moves first- moves towards him, footsteps a little unsteady but solid enough that he’ll likely prove something of a threat if given a chance. Gavin sighs lightly and sets his stance, calling up his preconstruction program and sinking into it-  


Except-  


Except it isn’t taking. What the fuck?  


He takes a step back, frowns and restarts the program and this time Grimes’ and Ortega’s figures deconstruct into white-red wireframe models like they should've the first time. But- but something seems- His predictive algorithms aren’t working very efficiently. Logic dictates that he should incapacitate Grimes then Ortega, in that order simply because Grimes is closer to him, but the prediction starts to self-adjust after the figure of _[GAVIN]_ lunges forward to grapple with _[GRIMES]._ The program abruptly raises _[ORTEGA]_ to higher priority, and _[GAVIN]_ moves away from _[GRIMES]_ to- Wait, no, that’s not how it should run.  


The predictive program is definitely malfunctioning. He force closes it, any errors from that decision getting smoothed over with no deliberate effort on his part, though he does let his eyes close for a few milliseconds to reset his visual mode to normal. What the fuck is up with him, and why is it happening _now?_  


_Now,_ when he should be taking out these two druggies in a matter of seconds, or at least scaring them enough that they’ll actually get the fuck out of here and leave him be. Now, when Nines isn’t gonna be any use in a fight and Gavin is gonna have to work harder to make up for that.  


Now, when one of the druggies is grabbing hold of his jacket and shoving him with enough force that he stumbles and hits the wall behind him.  


The impact has only a miniscule effect, mostly just jarring his balance for a moment. Grimes is back on him in that moment though, moving remarkably fast to lever an arm against his chest and scrabble at his neck, like- like he’s trying to get at an access port, maybe the same spot Akerman had admitted to exploiting.  


“That trick ain’t gonna work on me, asshole,” Gavin snarls, pushing back and trying to figure out where his combat and defence protocols have disappeared to because they really should be kicking in automatically-  


Fine. Y’know what? This- yeah, okay, this is fine, he can fight off a couple ice users without those protocols. The probability of critical injuries is going to rise because if he can’t preconstruct properly then he can’t calculate ideal force or strike locations in the amount of time he has to react. It’s fine, but it sucks.  


He grabs both of Grimes’ wrists, pushes off the wall and spins to ram the human against the brick. Android strength makes it easy to pin him, and Gavin gives in to the urge to growl and snap his teeth a few inches from Grimes’ face. The man looks dazed from hitting the wall, but he still pales and sinks back. As if he can get away by appearing pathetic.  


Gavin puts out a call to the nearest station while he lets the human try to shrink into the wall. He requests a team to come pick these guys up once he’s finished with them and gives the concept of an ambulance genuine consideration.  


Speaking of… The chemical mess of Nines’ saliva sample slips back across his HUD, a puzzle begging to be unravelled but now is _not a good time-_  


“Hey!”  


He doesn’t let up his hold on Grimes, but he shoves the analysis aside and snaps his head over to glare at Ortega.  


Who has grabbed Nines and apparently managed to drag his mostly dead weight up. Ortega has also found Nines’ gun and is holding it in his right hand, pointing at Gavin.  


“Phckin really?” Gavin drawls, not blinking at the sight. A pistol set up for a leftie shooter is not much of a threat in the hands of someone high on red ice and trembling as much as Ortega is. Even without the use of a preconstruction program, dodging a bad shot at this distance would not be terribly hard.  


Ortega frowns for an instant then pulls Nines closer to his body and aims at the human detective instead.  


Okay.  


That-  


Fuck, _that_ makes Gavin still, simulated breaths ceasing without an express direction as he straightens a little. He knows his expression has dropped to something almost neutral and he watches, careful and silent and waiting - for a movement, for an order, for any change in this situation. Because his partner is really fucking vulnerable right now, and his life might as well be in Gavin’s hands.  


Nines is seemingly conscious enough of what’s going on to go along with it, to not try to fight back and invite Ortega to do something fatal.  


Gavin is- Gavin would sort of like to be breathing, actually, because the heightened threat has his central processor overworking a little in trying to calculate actions for the optimal outcome. But with the preconstruction program not functioning right, he’s kind of stuck with muddling through on his own and internal temp is rising by the second.  


He releases Grimes and takes a step back, hands held out in surrender because he really can’t figure out how to do this and keep Nines safe-  


Nines, who is lolling heavily back in Ortega’s grasp and Gavin _still doesn’t know what he’s drugged up with._ The thought brings the tox analysis back in full force, the tangle of compounds expanding across his visual range in an instant and making the current situation harder to work through. No, he has to- he has to get to Nines, he has to protect Nines from these druggies before he can protect the man from his own bloodstream-  


There’s a sound punched from Gavin’s body as he’s thrown into the wall again, but the analysis suite is _this close_ to pulling something out of the tangle and it starts sucking up available processing power now that he’s given it a moment of attention- “Gamma hydroxybutyrate?” he mumbles with a frown as one chemical compound finally highlights and separates from the rest.  


“What the fuck?” A very good question really, because GHB would explain some of Nines’ behaviour, but it can’t have been administered via the autosyringe.  


And why the fuck is he fixating on the tox analysis? He actually pauses it, then pushes it aside once more and ignores his assailant to sink down into his systems and coding - cause the analysis really shouldn’t keep flinging itself to the forefront of his HUD like this. Combined with the way his preconstruction predictions were malfunctioning, and how his defence/offence protocols are nowhere to be found…  


There’s something in his system, isn’t there. Malware, or-  


Or a virus.  


Goddamnit. Had he really managed to pick up the exact same virus when he’d interfaced with Meredith again? Probably, because why the fuck not.  


He goes deeper, searches through notches of code where the virus had latched on to him two nights ago. And while he can’t find it in those spots, he’s sure it’s floating around, just trying to get its grubby lines in anywhere it can to try and take control of his objectives again, and just- no. Fuck that.  


A security sweep flies through the entirety of his coding and locates the stupid virus in milliseconds, easy since he knows exactly what to look for. And it’s easy to eradicate the fucking thing _with prejudice._  


And now defensive protocols are crowding to the forefront without prompting, analysis suite nowhere in sight, and it’s good. Because that means...  


The preconstruction program snaps into place, and he wastes no time in updating the situation and planning out his moves. Nines is, obviously, his prime objective - he can see it flashing on the side of his HUD, a reminder, a promise-  


**> PROTECT RICHARD ANDERSON**  


And immediately below that?  


**> INCAPACITATE ZACH ORTEGA AND HENRY GRIMES**  


Because they’ve dared to threaten his partner. If they hurt Nines, he’s gonna fuckin destroy them. _That_ is a promise.  


He looks at Nines. Actually meets his eyes, icy blue wary and maybe even scared, but Gavin offers him a genuine little smile. He wants to say something - wants to offer reassurance and a guarantee of wellbeing, and- But saying anything like that might tip their assailants off that something’s changed.  


So the humans all stay blissfully unaware as Gavin takes a few milliseconds to plan out his attack and defense. And then he’s moving in a flash, ducking Grimes’ hold on him and wrenching Nines’ gun then the man himself free from the other druggie. And while Ortega seems too stunned to do anything, Grimes makes an attempt to fight back, pulling something from a pocket - **| >KNIFE, 3.5” STAINLESS STEEL BLADE, SERRATED EDGE|** \- and the man tries, he really does, but he has no chance.  


Gavin wins the fight, standing in the middle of the alleyway 12.3 seconds later, the two druggies unresponsive bodies on the ground.  


He always wins.  


He unpauses the analysis and lets it play while he stalks over to Ortega, then Grimes, and heaves them up, one under each arm.  


It’s quiet. Even Gavin’s programs and HUD seem quieter, smoother in a way that makes him hope Meredith the AJ700 goes to see a medtech very, very soon because he’s not going to consider interfacing with her again until she does. He thinks about asking as he carries his druggies down the alleyway towards his other unimpressive opponent and drops them, three unconscious bodies in a pile together. No, he’ll give her an hour or more until he follows up. If his luck really has turned for the day, there might be a woman in the station’s holding cells for him to glare down by the time he gets back.  


That would be nice - but before he thinks too much about getting back to the station, there’re a few things he needs to take care of here.  


Gavin cuffs Akerman, wrists secure behind his back; he threads the chain of a second set of handcuffs through the ones on Akerman, then snaps one end each onto Ortega and Grimes. None of em are going to be touching Nines any time soon.  


He wants to smile at the thought of any one of them waking up and trying to maneuver themselves free… If Nines weren’t laying in a heap on the ground, he would probably even let some preconstructions run to visualize the pitiful squirming that would occur. But he’s gotta check on his human.  


“Gav?”  


He spins about, scanning for any sort of injury that might make his human sound so pitiful- Nope, the dumbass is just trying to stand up on his own again. “Nines-” he says, “c’mon, really? Could you- Would you just-” Gavin sighs, permits himself one last look at the three behind him then starts to stride towards his partner. “Richard, sit your ass back down,” he orders. Nines makes a weird face but lets his legs collapse beneath him. Gavin’s there a second later, and Nines looks up at him, sighs heavily, and makes that same weird face and it takes a moment but Gavin figures out that his human is rolling his eyes - or as close as his current state of coordination allows.  


He chuckles, sounding low and almost tired to his own audio receptors. If he were human, he’d blame the ebb of adrenaline from fighting off random druggies to protect his partner. But he’s not human, he doesn’t have neurotransmitters, and rest is for the weak.  


Okay, well, maybe he does need to stop putting off stasis for quite this many days.  


Anyways. Nines gives him a pleading look, so Gavin drops to his knees once more. “Hey,” he says and Nines’ expression changes, a broad smile slowly sweeping across his face to brighten his eyes.  


“You… You’re…” Nines reaches out, patting at Gavin’s shoulder until he interprets the motion as a silent request that he remembers vividly, even though it’s been nearly four weeks since the hospital. He shuffles closer then wraps an arm around his human, lets him huddle up however he wants. “Wow,” Nines mumbles, squirming to position himself laying back across Gavin’s thighs like he’s some kind of person-shaped lounge chair.  


He doesn’t mind much though, because his human is well enough to do it. No one’s going to have to carry him out this time, and that’s something Gavin can get behind wholeheartedly.  


He allows a moment to relax, checks that his offence/defence protocols are ready to activate if necessary and that his wide proximity sensors will make a whole hell of a lot of noise if anyone approaches them again. He breathes, steady and calm before syncing up to Nines’ faster rhythm.  


Which brings him to the issue that’s lurking safely in the circle of his arm. “How the hell did GHB get into your system?” he asks, nudging the analysis to the front of his HUD. It’s still working to ID compounds. “That autosyringe can’t have delivered it.” He’s glaring down a little, but softly. He hopes. He really fucking hopes it comes across as soft and caring.  


“Coffee prolly,” Nines murmurs, eyes half-lidded as he gazes up. Gavin can’t help but raise his own eyes to the sky, not quite far enough gone to _pray_ but way far enough that the concept doesn’t sound entirely crazy. Not when his human apparently has shit memory and self-discipline.  


“What did we _literally just go though_ two nights ago, huh? You have got to stop drinking whatever the fuck girls put in front of you.”  


Nines mumbles something unintelligible and blinks, then flails one hand upwards. He smacks Gavin’s jaw, pulls back and twists his wrist to land his palm on Gavin’s cheek this time. “You-” he says, and squints as if to focus. Nines wriggles a little, brushes his fingers across synthskin and drops his hand to stare at the blue he’s smeared across his own skin. “You’re okay, right? Thank god y’r’okay,” he mutters, and Gavin closes his eyes or else he’s going to scream. Because of his human, at his human, at the world that can’t give them a break for one goddamn day…  


He takes a slow, deep breath, ignoring the alert that the deliberate inhale has engaged his supplementary internal fans. It’s fine.  


This is fine.  


Nines is safe, and that’s what matters.  


Nines is safe and a pair of androids from the third precinct are only three blocks away. They’ll take Akerman, Grimes, and Ortega over to the downtown station for him, where there’ll hopefully also be a Ms Trinity Klement in custody by the time he can get back over there.  


He has a query waiting that he should really respond to- does he require an ambulance to his location?  


Arguably yes - Nines still doesn’t seem to be responding how he should be to the drugs circulating in his body, but now that Gavin has a solid few seconds to sit and breathe he can probably figure it out. So he declines the offer for now, though he does keep that contact near the surface in case his human really should get to a hospital.  


He allocates more processing power to the analysis and retrieves a list of GHB effects. Shit coordination, drowsiness, disinhibition- all present. However, Nines isn't experiencing respiratory depression or bradychardia. So there’s definitely more going on and affecting his human.  


Ah! The analysis suite highlights another compound, pentobarbitol.  


And then it’s like that one was a catalyst of some sort, because the program starts stacking chemical compounds quicker and quicker, starting to assign concentration rates and bringing up fun facts about the effects of each.  


“There we go,” Gavin murmurs, letting his gaze go distant as he focuses internally. Alright, his observed symptom list is getting explained away and attributed to the various compounds, so… Yeah, that's about the only good thing there. “Got a bunch of drugs ID’d here now, Rich.”  


“So?” Nines looks and sounds expectant. “What’s floating in my blood today?”  


“You sure you wanna hear it?” Gavin asks, staring down through the analysis map as it continues to search for anything else it can identify. It’s already got quite a list up on the side, but there might be more to be found yet.  


Conceptually, he understands what’s going on in his partner’s body and brain - he can google and trawl through the net and compile information without lifting a finger. What he doesn’t understand is why Nines is in the state he’s in. Namely, sort of functional.  


“Yes please.”  


Aw, so polite as he adjusts his grip on Gavin’s jacket and shifts closer. Gavin takes a deep breath, even though he doesn’t need it to rattle off the list of crap swimming around in Nines’ body. “C4H8O3 Gamma-hydroxybutyrate, C13H18ClNO Buproprion, C10H15N Methamphetamine, C11H18N2O3 Pentobarbitol, C19H24N2 Imipramine, C17H21NO4 Benzoylmethylecgonine and traces of thirium, so red ice…” Those are the main ones at least, ranked by concentration  


“Wait,” Nines says, scrunching his face into a cute frown as he thinks hard. “Y’said buproprion? And imipramine, those- those’re antidepressants. I think I’ve tried both of em.” Wait- So-  


“Rich,” Gavin says slowly. This could be the explanation he’s been looking for. “You have Anxious ADD and clinical depression, right?” Possibly high functioning Autism/Asperger’s too, but there’s no diagnosis of that in Nines’ medical records. But the point, the point is- “GHB is a weak agonist at- It can increase GABA, reduce anxiety. Pentobarbitol slows brain activity and nervous system, methamphetamine increases dopamine. She just- She-”  


“Y’know what, I mighta missed my meds last night. She’s fixin my brain chemistry for me.” Nines snorts and turns his face into Gavin’s body like he’s hiding, but he shakes lightly with amusement with his realization.  


“Yeah yeah, laugh it up Rich.” Gavin is starting to feel a little lighter now. Less on guard, and the breathy giggles coming out of his partner's mouth are a pretty solid proponent of that. Maybe they're gonna be oka- A tingle runs down Gavin's spine at a notification and he straightens, frowning as the analysis suite identifies a few more compounds that are present in low concentrations. “Aw shit.” The words fall out of his mouth, and he shifts his hold on his human to press a hand to his forehead to check temperature. Yup... He _knew_ keeping a link at hand to call for an ambulance was a good idea… “Rich, you heard of Monoamine oxidase inhibitors?” He gives his human barely enough time to acknowledge that he'd even asked a question before continuing, an ETA flashing in the middle of his HUD. “You're goin to the hospital this afternoon my man.”  


Giggles turn into a pout that is turned on him, like it’ll change his decision. “Aww, Connie won’t be happy bout that.”  


“That all you got to say about this?”  


They’re both silent for a second, Gavin waiting while his human thinks. “You’re cozy,” Nines offers at last, an afterthought he’d never speak aloud if he were sober.  


“I’m-? Yeah, alright, I’m just gonna leave that alone.”  


“Why?” comes next, and- and it feels like they’re back to the hospital several weeks ago because this feels a little like Nines is flipping through the list of things they’ve been chatting about and choosing a random one to return to.  


“Why- why what?”  


Nines rolls his eyes with a huff, fidgets a little. “Why’m I going to the hospital?”  


“Cause you probably got serotonin toxicity, never mind any of the other drug interactions that are messing up your body.” He’s pouting again - still - and Gavin sweeps fingers into Nines’ hair, combing the strands away from his face and pressing lightly against his skull. “Work with me baby, I gotta make sure you’re okay. And if that means hospital, that means hospital.”  


That pout has disappeared, but in its place is a wide-eyed stare. It’s very nearly as surprising as the easy “Oh,” Nines murmurs, not a breath of opposition in sight as he tugs on Gavin’s jacket like he’s trying to pull himself closer. He really doesn’t succeed in changing anything about their positioning, but he settles down like he achieved what he set out to do. He wiggles the fingers that aren’t clutching Gavin’s jacket as a request to hold hands.  


Gavin feels like he’s missed something. He’s not about to stop providing the desired comfort to figure it out though, and he reaches down to catch Nines' hand in his own.  


“Best partner,” the human mumbles, eyes dropping closed. _“Mine.”_

**Author's Note:**

> so uhh..... I took a few liberties with that mix of drugs after probably more research than necessary... tbh even before Gav ID'd an MAOI Nines really shoulda gone to hospital...  
> also, in the note closing out Trust, I lied. _NOW_ I have a two-parter story coming (set after Breaking Routine so.......) and some fluff bits and the Trust alternate-second-half-of-ch-2 (which I foresee finishing within the next few weeks, probably)
> 
> ALSO sometimes I throw up quotes/blurbs/teasers from stuff I'm working on up on my tumblr, so here: [Tumblr!](http://cyndrastar.tumblr.com/)  
>  
> 
>  
> 
> _(also also, PLEASE feel free to come shriek at me if you pick up on what Nines picked up on/noticed at the end there)_


End file.
